The Notebook of Bass Otis, Philadelphia Portrait Painter

The Notebook of Bass Otis, Philadelphia Portrait Painter THOMAS KNOLES INTRODUCTION N 1931, Charles H. Taylor, Jr., gave the American Antiquarian Society a small volume containing notes and sketches made I by Bass Otis (1784-1 S6i).' Taylor, an avid collector of Amer- ican engravings and lithographs who gave thousands of prints to the Society, was likely most interested in Otis as the man generally credited with producing the first lithographs made in America. But to think of Otis primarily in such terms may lead one to under- estimate his scope and productivity as an artist, for Otis worked in a wide variety of media and painted a large number of portraits in the course of a significant career which spanned the period between 1812 and 1861. The small notebook at the Society contains a varied assortment of material with dated entries ranging from 1815 to [H54. It includes scattered names and addresses, notes on a variety of sub- jects, newspaper clippings, sketches for portraits, and even pages on which Otis wiped off his paint brush. However, Otis also used the notebook as an account book, recording there the business side of his life as an artist. These accounts are a uniquely important source of information about Otis's work. Because Otis was a prohfic painter who left many of his works unsigned, his accounts have been I. The notebook is in the Manuscripts Department, American Andquarian Society. THOMAS KNOLES is curator of manuscripts at the American Andquarian Society. Copyright © i<^j3 by American Andquarian Society Í79 Fig. I. Bass Otis (i7«4-iH6i), Self Portrait, iHfio, oil on tin, y'/z x f/i inches. American Antiquarian Society. The Notebook of Bass Otis 181 the subject of a constant stream of inquiries at the Society as scholars and owners of paintings have attempted to identify portraits. Of primar)' importance for researchers are Otis's accounts for his work in Philadelphia between iSi9and 1826, which list the names of several hundred customers as well as the prices charged for those portraits. This transcription of the entire notebook is offered to make Otis's notes on his own work more widely available. The publica- tion of Otis's notebook also offers an opportunity for a brief new discussion ofthe facts pertaining to the artist's life and career. Such facts are by no means readily available, for there is very little direct documentation of Otis's life. He left no diaries and there are few letters or contemporary printed accounts. Even the most diligent researchers have been obliged to rely heavily on a few brief comments originally made by nineteenth-century writers and often repeated without question thereafter. What little we know of Otis comes largely through his work, and it is tantalizing to consider that only a small percentage of the portraits listed in Otis's notebook can now be positively identified, either in museums or pri- vate collections. That further studies of Otis's life and work are needed seems evident.^ It is the hope ofthe editor that the transcription and biography which follow will help to provide a foundation for such future studies. And given Otis's status in his own time as a respected artist whose portraits were in wide demand, perhaps an understanding of Otis's business practices and the climate in which he worked may aid in developing an understanding ofthe worlds of art, taste, and culture in the early national period. Despite the survival of his notebook and the legacy of his work as a portraitist, there is actually very litde documentary evidence 2. The only previous study to make use of Ods's notebook is the exhibidon catalogue Bass Otis: Painter, Portraitist and Engraver (Wilmington, Del. 1976), which is generally reliable and the most detailed discussion of Ods's life and work to date. Earlier studies include Joseph Jackson, 'Bass Ods: America's First Lithographer,' Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography ij (iiji i): 385-94, andjackson's árdele in the Dii7;onarvo/-'Í7 Biography, s.v. 'Ods, Bass.' 182 American Antiquarian Society for the details of Bass Otis's life. In fact, apart from Otis's notebook, the principal source of information on his life and career is contained in the brief comments made by William Dunlap in his History ofthe Rise and Progress ofthe Arts of Design in the United States. Moreover, while Dunlap's book is truly remarkable for its wealth of factual and anecdotal information on the art world in America in the first decades of nationhood (and still makes vastly entertain- ing reading), scarcely more than two paragraphs discuss Otis.' There is, at least, firm evidence regarding Bass Otis's origins. He was born on July 17, 1784, in East Bridgewater, Massachusetts, a town about twenty-five miles southeast of Boston. The Otis family was well established by the time of Bass's birth. His father. Dr. Josiah Otis ( 1749-1H08), was a physician, himself the son and grandson of physicians living and practicing in Plymouth County, Massachusetts. Bass's grandfather. Dr. Isaac Otis (1719-85), had graduated from Harvard College in 173 8, and was the only member of these three generations to attend an American college. The union of Bass's parents, Josiah Otis and Susanna Orr (1752- 1836), was not the first connection between the families. Otis's maternal grandfather, the Honorable Hugh Orr (1715/16-98), was a Scottish emigrant who married Mary Bass of East Bridgewa- ter in 1742. Otis's paternal grandfather. Dr. Isaac Otis, married Mary's sister, Mehitabel Bass, in 1746. The Bass surname became the artist's forename.'* This intermarriage of families had a commercial expression, as was common throughout New England. Family businesses were handed down from generation to generation and intermarriage functioned as a form of corporate consolidation. Bass Otis's anees- 3. William Dunlap, History of the Rise and Progress of the Arts of Design in tbe United States (New York, iKi4), 2:227. There is also a three-volume edition (Boston, iyi8) which adds some biographical material but deletes some of Dunlap's Information. 4. Ample information about Bass Otis's family can be found in Vital Records of East Bridgewater, Massachusetts, to /A',« (Boston, lyry); Vital Records ofBridêrrater.MassachtLfetts, to iSyo, 2 vois. (Boston, 1916); Horado N. Otis, A Genealogical and Historical Memoir of the Family of Otis (ho%ton, ca. rXô), pp. t8, 2S; William A. Otis..-i Genealogical and Historical Memoir of the Otis Family in America (Chicago, i 924), pp. loy-i 1 Edward C. Mitchell, History of tbe Early Settle?/>ent of Bridgewater, Massachiisetts (1840; reprint, Bridgewater, I «97), p. 261; Williams Latham, Epitaphs of Old Bridgewater, Massachusetts (iHHz; reprint, Middleboro, A4ass., 1976), pp. 196-97, 200-201. The Notebook of Bass Otis 183 tors took advantage of the fact that several small rivers flow through the town of Fast Bridgewater, the town's widespread water power allowing for the establishment of mills. Otis's maternal great-grandfather, Jonathan Bass, built a mill and forge there in the i 72()s. In 1740 Otis's maternal grandfather, Hugh Orr, also constructed a mill and eventually achieved some distinction as a scythe maker, a founder of cannons during the Revolution, and afterwards as a developer of textile weaving machinery. Hugh Orr's son Robert ( 1 745 -1811 ) continued the business and was later head of the U.S. armory in Springfield.' The generation of which Bass Otis was a member continued to play a role in these family enterprises. Bass had five siblings. Twin boys, Thomas and Melville, were born in 1778, but only Melville survived. Abigail (Nabby) was born in [781, Bass in 17S4, Clarissa in 1786, and Welcome in 1790. Melville continued in the metal- working business and was responsible for several inventions which improved the processes of nail and tack making.*^ In 1803 Nabby married William Vinton, also a scythe maker. After her death in 1816, Vinton married Nabby's sister Clarissa.^ Because of this family history, the story told both by Dunlap and Otis's relatives that Bass Otis was apprenticed to a scythe maker or a nail and tack manufacturer seems likely to be true even in the absence of any outside proof, and bis master could certainly have been a relative."^ William A. Otis repeats a family anecdote that, as a child, Bass made drawings in chalk on the bellows ofthe forge.'' 5. D. Hamilton Hurd, comp.. History of Plymouth County. MassachMetts (Philadelphia. 18S4), pp. 862-65; Mitchell, History of Bridgmâter, p. 57; Carl VV. Mitman, Dictionary of American Biography, s.v. 'Orr, Hugh." 6. Hurd, History of Plymouth County, p. X65. 7. John Adams Vinton, The Vinton Memorial (Boston, 1S58), pp. [47-48. 8. Dunlap, Hixtory ofthe Arts of Design 2:383; Ralph N. Warner, manuscript notes on Bass Otis, Sept. 2<j, lym, 'Bass Otis' folder. New-York Historical Society; Anthony J. Philpott. manuscript notes on interview with William Vinton, Jr., ca. igi 1, in Charles H. Taylor, 'Lithography and Artists' papers. Graphic .\TXS Department, American Antiquarian Society. Philpott's brief notes on his interview with Vinton, made when the latter was ninety-three years of age, clearly contain inaccuracies with respect to dates. However, they also contain valuable anecdotal infonnadon based on Vinton's personal knowledge of his uncle. y. W. A. Otis, Tbe Otis Family in Amerita, p. 109. 184 American Antiquarian Society This background would have given Otis technical skills; he may also have found it quite natural to experiment with mechanical processes, including engraving and lithography.

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